I had some shopping to do, so I wanted to go to either Baños or Ambato - the two closest towns to Salasaca. Some of the volunteers were heading to Ambato to watch a football game, whereas Romel, the gardener at the school was going to Baños to meet his mother. Since Romel was a local Ecuadorian, I figured that I would learn more about the local culture if I went with him, so I chose to go to Baños.

The driver of our bus to Baños was a psychopath. He drove the bus as if it was a motorcycle, weaving in and out of traffic and often coming close to having a head-on collision with an oncoming vehicle. Driving at such high speed in a such a dangerous manner through the hilly roads was scary even to someone like me who was used to the chaos that is traffic in India.

As we learnt earlier, Baños is the Spanish word for toilet/bathroom. The city of Baños is so called because of the numerous hot water springs in the area. Baños is situated at the base of the active volcano Tungurahua, and it is the magma within the volcano that actually heats the water in the springs. Besides Tungurahua, there are also other majestic mountains around which makes for truly picturesque surroundings.

Tungurahua - the active volcano  

Church of the Virgin of the Holy Water  

Baños also has a famous church called ‘Nuestra Señora del Agua Santa’ (aka ‘Church of the Virgin of the Holy Water’) and Romel’s house is right behind it. Calling it a house is not really appropriate, because it is no larger than a prison cell meant for solitary confinement, much like the narrow cells of Tuol Sleng. Romel told me that his ex-wife kicked him out of his house, and that’s the reason he has to now live in this make-do shelter. His current “house” is located right outside the gate of what once used to be his home, and his mother lives next door with his siblings. We ran into his sister when we got there, and she didn’t seem too pleased to see him. From their brief exchange (which of course I didn’t understand a word of), it was quite clear that Romel isn’t really the perfect family man.

I waited in Romel’s cell while he went out to do his work. I waited for a bit, but it didn’t seem like he was coming back soon. I was really happy that I had brought my netbook along and I pulled it out to blog a little. After some time, an old woman showed up with a glass of fruit juice for me. It was Romel’s mom, and it was really sweet of her to make it for me.

Romel's 'house' with the gate of what once used to be his real house

Romel returned with a large sack that he said he needed to take back to Salasaca. Since I needed to buy some groceries, we then went to a nearby supermarket. When that was done, Romel suggested we take a taxi back to Salasaca as it would be quite difficult to take his big sack on the bus. I agreed under the assumption that we would split the taxi fare. But when we reached, not only did I have to foot the taxi bill, but also had to give some money to Romel. He promised to return it as soon as he got his paycheck, but I already had my doubts about that. From my point of view, the amounts involved were not that high - 12 USD for the taxi and 10 USD to Romel - but it still left a bad taste in my mouth. Needless to say, I decided to henceforth limit all interactions with Mr. Romel.